REVOLUTION

Okay, so several years ago I learned about this renegade filmmaker named Casey Neistat through a film he made to help promote (one of my favorite movies!) The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.

Fast forward a couple or three years to last week, when a tweet led to me clicking a link & seeing Casey's distinctive, friendly face making a promise to create a new film every day until he got bored with the idea. He had successfully caught my eye again.

There's something incredibly refreshing about his unpretentious style, as well as the ambition that compels one to hack together a film every. freaking. day.

I've enjoyed every one of his vlogs, to date. But, yesterday, I watched one from earlier this week that has me fired up. Someone questioned why in the world he — a serious filmmaker — would vlog. Like somehow he's slumming.

His answer was awesome:

Our job as creators is to further define any medium.

I paused the film and sat with those words for a minute. It hit me:

We no longer have to rely on distributors to validate us. Or studios to fund us. We no longer have to rely on theater owners to screen our films. All we have to do IS MAKE FILMS. And make them our way... whatever way WE MAKE UP.

I felt like he was saying, "Mr. Gorbachev tear down this wall!"

If you're a creator, you should be pumping your fists in the air right now. If you're a student, you should be jumping up & down because the wall has come down. We are living in a unprecedented time of creative freedom, especially if you aspire to create stories using images.

If you haven't done so yet, I would highly recommend you watch that whole video up there. Watch the whole thing. Subscribe to his YouTube channel. Watch them all.

Maybe you're like, "just show me the best part, Trey". Fair enough. Click here. Just, whatever you do, don't ignore this.

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